Whether you think of the stars of Bachelor in Paradise as “all stars” or “rejects” from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, this very entertaining group’s tropical adventures are still going strong. Even if Dean Unglert’s love triangle shenanigans have come to an end.
In the mean time, everyone is wondering who is going to be the next Bachelor. Those are big shoes to fill, and there are a lot of candidates.
Mike Fleiss, the creator of the series, took to Twitter to drop some hints about who the next Bachelor will be. So it looks like they’ve made their decision.
Over the long weekend, Mike Fleiss tweeted
“We are very close to being able to finally announce #TheBachelor … You will be shocked!!!”
Honestly, we figure that we’ve probably spent too much time reading every scrap of information that comes down, narrowing down the pool of candidates, and thinking about it to be “shocked” by their pick for The Bachelor.
At least … we hope so.
After some hacking shenanigans suggested that Nick Viall was going to once again be The Bachelor through Mike Fleiss’ account, they regained control and deleted those tweets. Mike Fleiss issued some clarifications … sort of.
“Nick is NOT the next #TheBachelor.”
Followed by this:
“I didn’t say WHICH Nick is not the next #Bachelor.”
We’ve got a comedian here, folks. And then he tweeted this:
“Neither of them.”
It makes sense for Nick Viall to not be the Bachelor again, since this would be his, what? Fourth bite at the proverbial apple?
So … which other candidates are left?
It’s not going to be Juan Pablo Galavis, despite the hopes and dreams of some members of the Bachelor Nation.
The dude is married.
It could very well be Eric Bigger. He was a strong contender in Rachel Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette and he made it to the final three.
Eric Bigger has said that he would consider the role if it is offered to him, but … he wasn’t nearly as polarizing as either Bryan Abasolo or Peter Kraus, and it’s hard to see somebody who got that overshadowed going directly to playing the leading man, you know?
Chris Harrison is not getting the part, you guys.
This comes from Mike Fleiss’ on tweet:
“Just heard from @chrisbharrison . Unfortunately, he is no longer a candidate to be #thebachelor…”
Of course, he says that he “just heard” from him over the weekend. We imagine that they already know their pick.
Dean Unglert seemed like a surprisingly strong if surprising contender for the role after his stint on Rachel Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette.
Despite his youth (which honestly should be an asset, not a hindrance), Dean Unglert is a fan favorite and it’s kind of impossible to not love the guy.
At least … up until Deanie Baby’s stint on Bachelor in Paradise, where, as promised, he has made a total ass of himself with his love triangle shenanigans.
Life isn’t a CW show, my guy.
We’re totally willing to forgive him, and we think that the Bachelor Nation is, too … but probably not soon enough for Dean to make the leap to The Bachelor right after all of this.
Maybe he just needs some time for time to repair his image with the Bachelor Nation.
Or maybe he needs to make an appearance on another Bachelor Nation show — maybe the next season of Bachelor in Paradise — and have redemption arc.
The narrative would probably go along the lines of how much he’s matured. Then he’ll be a prime candidate to be the Bachelor.
In the mean time, though, this brings us to Dean’s bestie and former costar: Peter Kraus.
Peter Kraus is charming and heart-melting.
And let’s not ignore Peter Kraus’ abs, okay?
While earlier, Mike Fleiss had seemed dismissive of the idea that Peter Kraus could be the Bachelor, we wondered if that might be some sort of false flag.
Or even Mike Fleiss teasing a rejection in order to see how passionately the Bachelor Nation responded.
Peter pretty consistently ranks pretty strongly whenever Fleiss polls his followers for who should be the next leading man.
Recently, it’s seemed to be all but confirmed that Peter Kraus will be the next Bachelor.
Reality Steve tweeted:
“I feel confident in reporting that sources are telling me Peter is the next Bachelor & it will be announced soon. I’m aware of last min switch ups in the past, but I don’t believe that’s happening this time. He’s been the guy they’ve wanted since Day 1.”
Let’s hope.
Very recently, Mike Fleiss has even hinted at this on Twitter:
“Don’t we all agree on one thing– that we want #TheBachelor to be a man that’s serious about finding his soul mate/wife?”
Peter Kraus is, if anything, too serious about finding love.
To Peter, an engagement is a serious prospect, and he would have wanted to get to know Rachel off of the show — after winning — before popping the question.
We can’t think of a stronger contender.
